Chapter Text
Today was one of those days where Damon just wanted to change into his pajamas and head straight to bed. He was exhausted, and he could only thank his five new interns for that. They were a pain in the ass to deal with today.
As Damon turned his car to the street of his neighborhood, the feeling of laying on his bed and receiving the best sleep of his life brought a small smile to his face. He hadn’t smiled once today and sleeping was something he was looking forward to after a long day of work. As his car approached his house closer and closer, he furrowed his brows as he spotted a girl with dark pink hair sitting on the front steps of his house.
Well, him and Eva’s house.
Damon parked his car in the driveway and approached the house. He could tell the girl was a complete mess. Her hair was slightly messy and her eyes looked more pink than he remembered.
Diana had so many clients in the area so Damon was sort of glad her two month stay in town was nearing its end. Diana would often visit him and Eva’s house to visit Eva, and to bring baked goods and new recipes she’d experiment with.
Gosh, what the hell was his wife’s best friend doing here? Diana looked like a mess, she’s not holding a tray of food and she knew Eva wouldn’t come home until later.
Diana immediately stood up and eyed him. "Damon.” Her voice was stern, but her face contradicted the tone of her voice. She looked distressed.
“What, Diana?” He groaned. Diana better make this quick, all he wanted right now was to change his clothes and go to sleep.
“I have to ask. Why did Eva go to Germany?”
His eyes widened. Eva went to Germany? He didn’t know that.
“What?” He questioned, his volume was low but his tone conveyed confusion.
“Damon! You didn’t know she left?” The pink haired girl asked.
He continued to stare at Diana confused.
“You’re the only one she told about this .” Diana spoke. She took a deep breath. “So why would she go alone?” She added.
Damon didn’t say anything but it all clicked to him.
He didn’t know she left today. But he did know she was sick and he could recall Eva mentioning a clinical trial in Germany during the small conversation they had at home a few days ago.
Him and Eva haven’t been on the best terms recently. Something happened a few months ago and it changed everything. Eva said something regarding the tragic event and it rubbed Damon the wrong way. The two dared to never speak of it. It affected their relationship tremendously. They no longer shared wholesome conversations such as asking how one’s day was. Whenever they shared meals together at home, it was dead silent between them. They no longer slept in the same room, nor the same bed.
But when Eva came home early on a random Thursday last month and was met with the sight of Damon reading a book on their living room couch, she took a seat next to him and tapped his shoulder.
“I’m sick.”
“Are you alright? Do you have a fever?”
"No, I have a brain tumor.”
Damon didn’t know how to react. At that point they didn’t share a proper conversation for weeks and she just casually dropped her illness on him like it wasn’t a big deal. He could only stare at her in disbelief.
Eva has a brain tumor.
She made it abundantly clear she didn’t want anyone to know, only him. No one in her family knew, no one in Damon’s family knew. None of their friends knew. Only Damon and Diana knew.
Actually, Diana wasn’t even supposed to know but she just happened to be at the hospital the same day as Eva’s checkup since Diana tripped and fell from walking in her obnoxiously high heels and managed to twist her ankle. She ended up overhearing Eva’s conversation with the doctor in the lobby.
“If you’re the only one who knew about it, why didn’t you go with her?” Diana added once more, but this time a tear from one of her glossy eyes fell and trickled down her face. “Why did you let her go by herself?”
Eva definitely didn’t want Damon to go with her. Especially with how cold and dry she’s been towards him whenever they spoke.
“How did you know she left today?” He asked her. He genuinely wanted to know. Diana was never supposed to know about Eva’s brain tumor, so he’d find it hard to believe that Eva would just straight up tell Diana about the clinical trial plans.
“I saw her, and I talked to her.” Diana claimed. “I was at the hair salon a few blocks down from Eva’s work to meet up with a client. I went to the cafe next door to grab a bite and there she was! She had a small suitcase with her so I asked her where she was going.” She explained quickly.
Diana paused for a brief moment to catch a breath. He noticed how her eyes were starting to look even more glossy as if more tears were about to fall. “She said she was going to Germany for work, and then I asked if you were going with her.”
"I’m not.” Damon replied. He parted his mouth open slightly and stared at the pavement beneath him, daring to not make eye contact with Diana. He had no words as the cosmetologist's breaths trembled in an attempt to collect herself. Damon knew Diana’s been worried sick for Eva ever since she found out about her tumor at the hospital. He felt kind of bad for wanting Diana to leave so badly a minute ago. She was just expressing her worries for her best friend.
“She shouldn’t go somewhere so far by herself, especially when she’s sick like this.” Diana sighed.
Damon detached his gaze from the ground and looked at Diana intensely.
She had a point.
Diana left a few minutes later, leaving Damon all by himself. He approached the entrance of the house and turned his key in the door. He walked in, pulled his key out and shut the door behind him to be met with the sight he’s been coming home to everyday.
An empty house.
Damon always came home before Eva hence he left for work a few hours before her. He’s always met with the house that Eva left it in. She turned off every single light and opened the curtains. The house would be extremely dark if the current rays of sunshine didn’t peer through their living room and kitchen windows.
With his set routine, he always came home around the same time. On bright and sunny late afternoons like this, a ray of sunshine always shone on one of the walls of their living room. The sun shone on an individual picture frame that hung on the wall, making it gleam and glisten and it never failed to catch Damon’s eye whenever he came back from work.
He eyed the picture frame from where he stood in front of the door. It was a picture frame of him and Eva at the air and space museum. They stood in front of a large airship Eva claimed to have written a paper on when she was in high school. Their hands were clasped together, and had warm smiles plastered on their faces.
It was nice back then, but that was four years ago. He remembered how he’d hold her tight as she slept in his arms. He’d constantly make notes to himself, saying how the one he held in his arms was the love of his life.
He misses it.
He misses her.
However, Eva isn’t the only one to blame for why they’re like this right now. Damon wasn’t innocent either.
Damon took his shoes off, climbed up the stairs and strolled into his room. He quickly changed into comfortable clothes and laid his back on the bed. The blonde placed his phone face down on the nightstand and shut his eyes, hoping that the sleep he’s been fantasizing of since this morning would finally hit him. But it didn’t.
Instead, his mind drifted to Eva. He wondered what time she left, where she was right now, and what she was doing. Despite not being on the best terms right now, it would be dishonest of him to say he wasn’t worried.
“She shouldn’t go somewhere so far by herself, especially when she’s sick like this.” He recalled the words of Diana from moments ago.
Damon sighed. Diana did have a point. What if something happened to her? What if she has a migraine? What if she faints? What if her tumor progressed even further?
Without thinking, Damon retrieved his phone from his nightstand and searched for Eva’s contact. He had to scroll quite a bit to find her contact. The last time they spoke on the phone was two weeks ago.
Despite living in the same house, they rarely interact at home and it’s been like this for four months. At the times when they’re both home, they each stayed in their individual rooms. Little to no words were exchanged whenever the two happened to be in the living room or kitchen at the same time, even if it was just for a short moment.
He continued to search for Eva’s contact. His recent calls were from his five interns who were a pain in the ass, Kai, and his parents. Once he found it, he tapped her contact and was immediately met with voicemail. He tapped her contact again and it went straight to voicemail once more.
Damon nodded to himself. He concluded she was still on the plane and switched her phone to airplane mode or just turned it off. He knew she didn’t like using her phone when on a plane anyway.
He let out a deep sigh and placed his phone back on the nightstand. He shut his eyes tight, praying a state of slumber would finally reach him.
All of a sudden, his phone started to ring. He shot his upper body up, hoping it was Eva calling to tell him where she was and that she’s okay. He extended his arm out to grasp his phone but when the phone’s screen came to view, he furrowed his brows in slight disappointment.
It was Kai.
He answered the influencer’s phone call. Kai called to ask if Damon wanted to go fishing at the lake next to Kai’s hotel since Kai was in the area for a brand trip. He’ll be gone in the next few days.
Damon sat in silence as Kai started yapping about the new fishing rod he recently purchased. There was no point in telling him no, Kai would just keep on begging Damon until he would finally comply.
An hour later, Damon and Kai sat on foldable chairs on the dock of the lake. Kai was like a little kid who just got a new toy as he tested out his new fishing rod. Damon on the other hand wore a blank expression on his face as he stared at the murky water. He was thinking about Eva and wondered if she was off the plane by now.
“Yo, Damon! We should totally get together with the guys and have a barbeque one day!” Kai exclaimed.
“We can invite Jett, Mark, Ulysses, Jean, Jett, and Wolfgang! We’ll have so much fun.” The pink haired man added with excitement.
Damon equipped his phone from his pockets and started typing on his phone. Kai turned his head to Damon, who hadn’t uttered a single word in the past few minutes. Kai didn’t even know if Damon was paying attention to him or not.
“Dude, are you even listening?” Kai asked. “Geez, I should’ve asked Diana to hang out instead since she’s in the area.” He joked.
“I am listening.” Damon responded dryly, still staring at his phone.
“Why aren’t you excited for the barbeque I’m planning?”
“No, I am excited.” He replied with the same tone. “Yay, barbeque. Funnnn.” He spoke, his tone switching from dry to sarcastic. His focus refused to detach from his phone.
Kai glanced at Damon and then to the phone that was equipped in his hands. A smirk formed on Kai’s face and he snatched the phone from Damon’s hands.
“What the-? Hey!” Damon shot his head to Kai, complaining now that his hands were empty.
The influencer stared at the new object that was in his hands and let out a chuckle once he saw what was on the screen. “Dude, why are you looking at the weather in Germany? Is Eva there for work?” He asked.
“Yeah.” Damon lied. She wasn’t there for work, she was there for the clinical trial. But Kai didn’t need to know that.
“Awww you guys are so cute.” Kai said with a smile on his face. “You two must really care for each other, huh?”
His eyes widened as he processed the words Kai just said.
They used to. Matter of fact, Damon still does. None of their friends knew about Eva and Damon’s situation right now. Not even Diana. Even though Damon moved to the other room and they barely interact, he still cares deeply for her.
Even though what she said was so messed up, he didn’t have the heart to hate her. But the main question here was if Eva still cared about him. It was hard to know since they don’t interact much. She’s been busy with work since she recently booked a higher up position. On top of that, she's been indifferent and distant lately.
Before Damon could reply, a ringtone Damon was unfamiliar with filled their ears. Kai took his phone out of his pocket and handed Damon’s phone back to him.
“Oh shit, I have to take this. It’s my manager calling.” Kai told him. “I’ll be right back.” He noted as he walked away from the dock to give himself some privacy.
Damon unlocked his phone and navigated to his email. He hadn’t checked it since this morning. He skimmed through his inbox, reading boring email topics from softwares he had subscriptions with. But then a particular email caught his eye.
It was a mass email from the company Eva worked at.
He curiously tapped the email and a thumbnail of a video was displayed on the screen. The title of the video read: “Interview with CEO: Eva Tsunaka”
Damon immediately pressed the play button. This video was obviously prerecorded. What could she have possibly been talking about here?
Most of the video was the interviewer asking Eva questions about her goals and future plans for the company. He had to admit she was really stunning here. But ever since she booked CEO she looked slightly different.
Her hair was wavy as usual but the white ends he was familiar with weren’t in sight. She also wasn’t wearing her glasses since she recently started wearing contacts. At the occasional times he worked at home he’d find himself eyeing Eva from the kitchen while he sipped on his morning coffee. He’d drink and watch as Eva slipped on her ballet flats near the front door right before she’d leave for work. He knew she hates wearing shoes like those. He assumed she changed herself slightly to seem more mature and fit for the position. They were still quite young afterall.
All of a sudden Damon was even more attentive since the video was nearing its conclusion and the interview was now on the very last question.
“What will you do once you’ve achieved all your goals?” The female interviewer behind the camera asked Eva.
“Hmm… I haven’t really thought about that.” Eva responded through the screen. She was sitting on a small white couch in a room he supposed was her office. He recognized the black bookshelf sitting in the background. Damon saw it in her office many times when he used to visit her frequently during work hours.
Eva’s brows were slightly furrowed, her head was tilted a bit, and she blinked a few times. She sat in silence for a brief moment, trying to come up with an answer.
“I think I’d want a break.” She let out a chuckle. A small smile then started to form on her face.
Damon could only stare at her through the phone screen. He hadn’t seen this look on her in a really long time. The last time he remembered seeing her smile like this was many months ago when they were happy together and he can remember the moment vividly.
He recalled how they held each other close as they were about to fall asleep. Their legs were tangled with each other and Eva’s face rested against his neck as Damon held her tight. He remembered they were having a conversation on whether or not they should get a cat. They discussed how getting a dog was out of the question since Damon was allergic. He remembered how Eva smiled brightly and let out a laugh when she recalled how silly Damon looked whenever he sneezed.
He continued to stare at Eva who was on the screen. She looked beautiful. Smiling was for sure a good look on her.
“I’d like to travel with my husband, I guess.” She continued in the video. The smile on her face didn’t go anywhere. “We haven’t been on a trip in a long time. I want to go on walks like we used to. Have some tea, eat dinner, spend the day together.” Eva added.
Did she really mean that?
Damon ran a hand through his blonde hair as he continued to watch the video and his hands firmly gripped his phone. He watched as Eva took a breath, indicating she was about to say something more.
“If we could be like that everyday, that’d be nice.” She nodded, that smile of hers still on her face.
His vision started to blur. Water welled up in his eyes when he heard her say that. He glided his thumb on the progress bar of the video to rewind it by a few seconds. For some reason, he wanted to hear her say it again.
“If we could be like that everyday, that’d be nice.” The Eva on the video repeated.
After hearing her say that for the second time, a tear streamed down his face. Damon was sold. Even though she was cold to him, Damon believed her, he had no doubts. He wasn’t sure if he was crying from the sight of Eva smiling, how she wanted to be with him this whole time, possible guilt, or even a combination of all of it.
He didn’t know where Eva was or what she was doing at the moment. But he now knew two things.
He now knew Eva felt the same way. The other thing he knew was booking himself the quickest flight to Germany.
He needed to be with her as soon as possible.